


Psalm 119:27-29

by viciouswishes



Category: Big Love
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-08-17
Updated: 2007-08-17
Packaged: 2019-02-15 21:53:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13040190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/viciouswishes/pseuds/viciouswishes
Summary: Setting: Future fic, no spoilersSummary: He never wanted this life, never asked God for it, but it came to him by God's will and testament.





	Psalm 119:27-29

Everyone in Juniper Creek knows his name. He never wanted this life, never asked God for it, but it came to him by God's will and testament. He is the prodigal son returned home to the place he was once driven from. 

They call him the good prophet. He makes sure that his flock is cared for, provided for. No one goes hungry or without shelter. Sure, once in a while, he has to turn a blind eye; but it's for the good of the people, for the good of the compound. He might drive around in his Hummers, but he's no Roman Grant. 

He's greeted by his fifth wife Rachel who brings him a cup of orange juice with his morning stock report. She was, and is a most excellent secretary with a round, firm behind. He bends her over his desk and makes love to her before his noon meeting with the UEB. 

They're fighting for water rights, and the FBI's trying to pin him with others' crimes, those sick, depraved child molesters and deviants who pervert the Principle for their own lustful, craven desires. Bill Henrickson is not one of them. 

***** 

Margene takes a lover when she spends her 40th birthday looking out her penthouse window and sneaking cigarettes. Bill calls her his city wife. He takes her to lunches with the mayors and dinners with senators. She can flirt and entertain; even if she'll never have the motherly, soothing charm that Barb did. Instead, Margene's taken to wearing long silk gloves and large brim hats. 

Her lover's name is Jeff. He's almost completely unremarkable, except for the birthmark shaped like the silhouette of a woman's thigh on his lower back. He's never heard of Juniper Creek and thinks that polygamists are goblins made up to scare LDS children into obedience. 

"Harder," Margene hisses as he fucks her. When she squints, Jeff reminds her of Bill when he was younger, when they were both younger. She spends the first months her affair pretending that it's her husband's cock pushing inside of her, that it's his tongue licking her pussy. 

Jeff tells her that he loves older women. Margene considers slapping him, but instead she's coming. Then she's looking at the clock and telling Jeff to go. It's almost 2 p.m., and her two youngest will be home from high school. 

***** 

He drove his mother and his sister to the edge of the compound. It was the last human act Ben ever performed. He was supposed to the next prophet, to continue his father's legacy. 

But instead, five years later, he ate the end of a shot gun. 

***** 

Barb teaches fifth grade at an elementary school in Colorado Springs. Most of her students comes from military families, and Barb likes to think that she provides them stability and a nurturing hand. She doesn't think about how she jumps every time she sees a large SUV drive by her classroom. 

She reads her students _Matilda_ as they settle down after recess. Barb remembers Nicki throwing a fit when she read the book to Wayne and Ray. There would be no filthy, heathen magic in Nicki's house. But these children grew up reading _Harry Potter_ and knowing how to play video games before they could walk. 

When Barb buys groceries on Saturday, the checker calls her, "Mrs. Dutton" and she doesn't bother to correct him. She feels old and perhaps a little lonely. She thought about dating once, but instead pins her students' artwork to her refrigerator. 

She'll go to New York City to see Sarah for the Christmas holiday. Her daughter's finally gotten rid of her nose ring and purple hair, but she still blames Barb for everything. Sarah writes a successful web comic about polygamists, about their family, and Barb's ashamed to tell anyone that "yes, that's my daughter and yes, that was my life." 

***** 

Teeny lives the life of spinster, taking care of her grandmother. Lois thinks Teeny's a dyke and she might just be right. Somehow, Teeny convinced her father that she be promised to be sealed to a Son of Helaman; even though Lois stopped praying a long time ago and Teeny clearly doesn't care. 

In reality, Lois knows that Bill took pity on his second daughter when her flake of a mother up and left her with her older sister. Lois' son always had a soft spot for his children and his wives. One that one of them was going to find and sink his or her finger in it until Bill's heart explodes, just like his father's. 

***** 

First wife is not what Nicki's mother told her it would be. She's constantly busy, making sure that Bill gets where he's supposed to be and keeping her sister-wives in line. In fact, she spent an hour on the phone yelling at Margene for the utterly, whorish red dress she wore at the Utah Governor's Ball. 

Not only does Nicki have to manage Bill and her sister-wives, but she also tends to her children and grandchildren. Nicki's sending them to spelling bees, knowledge bowls, baseball camps, and on missions to help those less fortunate than them. 

Nicki takes a well-deserved break once a week. She locks herself in her and Bill's bedroom with her laptop. She lets her hair down, kicks off her shoes, and surfs eBay for rare 18th century china. Sometimes, she cries while running a bubble bath. 

In her darkest hours, Nicki doesn't pray to God, but asks just how Barb did it. 

***** 

Rhonda's smiling before the lights, spinning lies into gold. Her skirt keeps ridding up her butt, and her arms are tired from dealing cards to the losers, addicts, and winners in Aladdin's Castle. She snorts coke for the first time and sings karaoke at midnight. "This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine. Let it shine. Let it shine. Let it shine." 

***** 

Joey knocks on her door. He's nervous, running his hands through his hair and sweating. 

When both his wives turn up dead - poisoned with anti-freeze - he leaves without packing his bags. He knows it was sign. And she's the only one he knows on the outside. She's the one who tried to get him, Wanda, and Joey Jr. off the compound so many years ago. The woman who always brings stars to his eyes. If only she'll let him in now. 

"Hello, Barb." 

And she kisses him like she was just waiting to do this for years. 

***** 

Don's too old for plotting and scheming. He's been saying that forever. But Bill's always receiving divine inspiration from God and Don's played his conscious for years and he doesn't know how to stop. Don looks in a mirror. He's older, fatter, and more wrinkled than he was the day they cut the ribbon on the first Henrickson's Home Plus. 

Don keeps his wives in Sandy City. They're good about tending to themselves when he's out late with Bill or falls asleep on Bill's couch at the compound. 

"I'm too old for this shit, Bill," he says again. Bill asks him when he started swearing. "When you weren't looking," Don responds. 

They eat Nicki's homemade bread by the duck pond and discuss investing in the start up tech firm Wayne's running in Lost Angeles. 

"Do you ever wish things were simpler?" 

"It's not our place to question God's path." 

"I know." Don sighs. He's too old not to be wearing loud Hawaiian print shirts and retired in Palm Springs. "But don't you miss the days when you could turn off your phone and sleep?" 

Bill looks up at him with clear eyes, his hand on Don's back. " _Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of thy wondrous works. My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word. Remove from me the way of lying: and grant me thy law graciously._ Amen."


End file.
